The autumn has deepened and we have welcomed winter, a season in which wild duck hot pot is delicious.
If you add leeks, the flavour is enhanced all the more . . .

Oh, I am Duck* Aoba. Hello.
If I say I have something to say, let's see. For a professional player, there are fatal enemies.

I think that probably the person whom Akino Izawa likes the most, next to the man she married, Seiken Takanashi, is me. Just seeing Izawa's name on a tournament chart makes me give a cry of fear . . . (Away from the go board, I am very fond of her.) I've played her any number, just any number of times in official games and I don't remember ever winning. Just a difference in strength? Uh, if you put it like that . . .

And then this year, again, I ran into her. In Preliminary A of the Women's Kisei Tournament. I come along and I'm just easy pickings, or that's how it feels.

The game began. In the exchange in the bottom left, I took a punch: White 68. I was reeling. But even this sucker Aoba sometimes flies away. Escapes.

When I took hold of a white stone on the right side with Black 99 and then rescued two stones with Black 123, I thought that the game had become slightly favourable for me. However, at that instant, my centre moyo became thin because of White 140 and 142. The pot was already boiling.

Duck Aoba desperately flees.
Dash!

But Akino runs ahead of me with incredible momentum in the endgame. Her punches are not only heavy, she's also fleet of foot.

I was slow even in walking races. (Distant look in my eyes.)
Just as I was thinking this, to my surprise, Akino stumbled. No, has she fallen over?
Duck Aoba, desperately runs past her, with her short legs getting caught up with each other.

And, at about the same time, we reach the goal.
The decision: I win by a nose: a half point. The crisis is over.

Well, when I look back, it was a long journey of more than a decade.
There were tears in the eyes of the duck. The saltiness adds to the flavour . . .

Aoba Kaori

*(Translator's note: In Japanese, wild duck (kamo) means 'an easy mark' or 'sucker'.